2013 was a relatively smooth year. During the year, share prices continued upward, which is not good if you are an income investor still in the accumulation mode. My Dividend Growth Portfolio's 2013 risk rating will end higher than 2012's 1.61 rating as a result of higher valuations on many stocks I hold.
From an investing standpoint, 2014 will be much different than the previous years. With a daughter in college, I will have less discretionary money to invest (I began to feel the pinch in Q4 2013). In 2012, I completed my investment transition to Dividend Growth Stocks. Much of my historical investments were reallocation of existing funds. Given these facts, the 2014 dollar amount of new investments in my Dividend Growth Portfolio will be smaller.
Hopefully, we will have a few deep corrections in 2014. I always welcome a correction as a buying opportunity. 2013 saw very few dividend cuts, I anticipate a similar trend in 2014. I also suspect 2014 will see fewer companies failing to raise their dividends (dividend freezes). The trend in 2013 continued where my dividend increases exceed dividend cuts.
| Description | Dividend Income Annualized | Yield on Cost |
| 2027 Goal | 110,000 | n/a |
| 2017 Goal | 42,000 | n/a |
| 2013 Goal | 30,000 | n/a |
Since I expect to exceed my previous 2017 goal of $30,000 in 2014, I have increased my 2017 goal to $42,000. I left the income goal for 2027 unchanged. Reflecting lower contributions next year, I am setting my 2014 annualized dividend income goal at $30,000. To achieve this goal, I anticipate moderate dividend growth in 2014, somewhat less than the 6% I experienced in 2013.
I am confident that I will finish 2014 with higher annualized dividend income than where 2013 will end. In addition, I feel good that my string of sequential months of higher annualized dividend income will continue through 2014.
If it were easy, everyone would do it and success wouldn't be nearly as satisfying. Here's to a prosperous 2014!
(Photo: sanja gjenero)
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